Ok so ive been tinkering with my t56 for a few days now, kinda pushing my motor/tranny swap as fast as i can, when i bought my LS T56 it came with a pro 5.0 short shifter, ive always wanted one so that was a score, then i traded the trans to wesilva in NM for his LT version, kept the shifter, now heres my thing i was runing it thru the gears tonight and i cant find reverse for the life of me, ive driven plenty of 02's and im pretty sure reverse is up to the left correct?

in any case ive been reading about a reverse lockout solenoid? am i not gonna be able to find reverse if thats not energized or what? this is my first t56 swap and i want to put all the pieces in place before i take my car out for the work, mayb e im just retarded, maybe the solenoid needs to be activated, or is it possible that the shifter was adjusted for the LS T56 and i need to readjust it for my LT? i didnt screw with any of the settings on it and i know the guy from LS1Tech had JUST pulled it from his 02 TA cuz he went for an auto...somebody tell me where im jackin this up lol please

TIA

 

I thought R was to the far upper right... but don't know since I have a 700r4..

 

Something like that lol like I said I've driven them before but I drive so many different cars on a daily basis that R is wherever the hell it wants to be lol I really wish I could set it up like a subaru where you pull up on the boot and it opens revrse that'd be tight lol

 

That shifter should work for that tranny you just need to put some muscle into it and force the shifter over to the right and up, use two hands if needed since the spring in the lockout is pretty strong to override. To fix it properly you would need to either wire the reverse lockout to the brakes or do what I did and cut down the spring some so it's not so hard to override the lockout mechanism.

 

You really should not dissable or modify the solenoid. It is designed so that you do not get it in reverse instead of fifth. I like hooking them up to a momentary switch instead off the brake pedal which alot of guy's do. It would be possible to activate the switch if you have your foot on the brake while downshifting? Could be a bad deal. I have the plug and wire kits for those if you need one. Thanks Bob

 

I've been running mine like this for the last 7 years without a problem though I still left it with some spring pressure just it doesn't take two hands to move it. The momentary switch idea would be the safest.

 

So just out of curiosity if I added power and ground to the solenoid it should open up? I'm. Probably gonna go with the brake idea, if I downshift I never use the brakes until I'm down into about second, and I normally skip gears so if I was in 6th id go to 4th then 2nd etc depending on my speed, so going from 6th to reverse won't be an issue

 

I thought it was impossible to actually shift into reverse while in forward motion, due to internal design? It'll sound awful, but can't actually engage the gear

 

Its possible, on the t5 the reverse gear is spur cut, as opposed to the forward gears which have a helical gear that works with the synchros and blocker rings ( ever crunch it into reverse and have people stare?) The two gears just slide together without any shnchro so the chance of you jamming the 2 spurs ogether is minimal but possible, I rebuilt one for a guy who tried avoiding an accident by throwing it in reverse at about 20, no luck smashed into the car anyway, good thing it was a 5.0 stang lol

As for the t56 I'm not sure how the gears are cut

 

T56 should have the reverse straight cut as well. If the reverse "whines", it's straight cut

 

That's what I thought, so any idea on putting power to the solenoidn to test it?

 

Reverse is synchronized and the gears are helical in all T56 boxes.